The Interweb is not part of reality

In the last few days we have seen a part of the web going crazy about a company announcing in advance how it plans to handle its product/service. Yes I’m choosing my words just like the people that were against such policy chose their words. I know it’s the web and that it gives a voice to everyone for good or bad but that’s also the reason I don’t like as much that nice thing that was making me dream when I was younger. Somehow the web had a much more romantic feel in my mind than what I have finally come to accept as reality.

Now ask me what I think of “exposing your real identity with your total agreement”. I can’t say that’s something I wish would happen to all the web or to any media as people with good filters are able to make their own opinion without going crazy. When it’s about a game though I just couldn’t care less. Even if some people consider that this game have become some kind of iconic pop figure that is much more than a game.

The first thing I’ll hear is that “it’s not what people agreed for”. I know people laugh at things like “experience may change during online play” but there is a reason why it is written on the damn box you’re buying. Just like nobody care reading the terms of agreements when installing a new software yet we all agree anyway. At the end of the day you are paying for a service/product and customers always have the power by voting with their wallet. But why make a choice when you can just use a wonderful media to express your anger … about some game … I won’t even bother to mention that some people have been imprisoned for what they said on the web and no there was no games involved in this …

Do I want everyone to be able to stalk me even when I’m just “joking around having some fun”? No. That’s why you won’t find much on my Facebook profile. Sure it would be damn much easier for me to complain that Facebook must be better at protecting my personal info but somehow I chose to not put much on Facebook to start with. I have the power to chose and Facebook will never know that on some monday morning I decided to call sick while I spent the day swimming in my pool. Not a real story if you are wondering …

Oh! I have a blog! I’m writing on it! That means I have no problem with anyone knowing everything about me because obviously I’m an attention whore! I still decide what to put on this blog and if I go too far then the only person to blame is me. Should I blame WordPress for being so easy to use? Should I blame my host for not filtering what I’m putting on my blog? Should I blame Google or the the Internet Archive to keep a copy of everything I put on my blog? Why can’t I blame myself for writing something that shouldn’t have been post in the first time? Oh right! Here (Canada and US for what I know) we live in a society of rights … with no duties attached to it … People are always innocent and we can always blame the government or some corporation for anything bad happening … We are all innocents … and innocent in french can also mean stupid …

Wait! I think I’m forgetting something … What could it be? Of course! The security argument!!! What if a woman is stalked by some freak and something bad happens to her … Breaking news! Freaks are stalking women and children every single day and for most people it only means 2 minutes on TV … You know that time where you go to the toilet? Oh but what if we could blame a game?!?! I bet we can do 2 hours on TV (if not more) and have people call to say how terrible games companies are …

Oh and if your 10 year old kid have a computer with Internet access in his bedroom it’s the exact same thing as telling him to ride his bike on the highway. I know not everyone have the right education to know that but count on me to harass everyone around me to know about that … Do your part please …

So would I agree with a game that wasn’t publishing real names before that decides to now publish the real names of people after having announcing doing so in advance (not retroactively I must say)? No. Would I play such game to start with? No … Oh wait! We can’t ask people to stop play a game! They have “invested in the company providing the service they are enjoying so obviously nothing can ever change about that company”.

So no the Interweb is not real because people value more their anonymity than their freedom of choice. It means for me that the services we are using are not services anymore. It means we have become slave to them, not being able anymore to refuse to use them. It’s not real because we are unable to make real choices about it. Even in 2010 we consider it as “something else that is not real life”. Guess what. The web IS real life. Welcome to the 21st century …

Again … Do I think it would have been bad for Blizzard to show real names in forums? Yes. Do I wish it they would have gone bankrupt if they would have decided to go on even if the opposition was so strong? Yes. Do I think it is lame that people are not able to vote based on their opinions and values when they actually have the power? Yes …

Don’t even get me started on the power of web opinion … People just like to complain because it’s so easy to do so. I do not qualify this as freedom of speech or freedom of CHOICE …

I’ve said before that blogging was odd for me as I know that in 2 minutes I’ll read that post again and then think “oh I should have said that instead or I should have used these words instead”. That’s what blogging is about. A picture in time … And right now these are the words I want to use even though it’s not a complete picture of my thoughts and even though I’m not done talking about the oddity of blogging (which is really not the same thing as writing a book or some more extensive writing work). I’ll still live with the consequences of those words because at that very moment I can just click that big red X instead of clicking “publish”. You know … I have the choice …

Either we’re reading different sites, or I’m not understanding most of what you’re saying.

I understand the situation as:
- Company announces they are going to change service which people use.
- Many people say, “This is making me rethink using your service.” Some of them stop using the service.
- Company says, “Due to public reaction, we’re not going to change the service.”

Somehow I think you’re seeing this as a bad thing, and I’m thinking it’s more or less how things are supposed to work.

The alternative:
- Company announces they are going to change their service.
- People quit en-masse, but they don’t say anything on their blogs.
- Company goes bankrupt.

Serves neither the company nor the customer well.

The ability to vote with one’s wallet supplements the ability to voice an opinion, it doesn’t replace it.
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I just think that between complaining on the web and actually doing what you said in your complaints is totally different for most people.

Much easier to post on the web than actually doing anything.

My bet is that a lot of complaints we have seen wouldn’t have converted in people actually quitting.

I still have friends complaining about Sony for whatever reason yet they are still playing EQ2 for example. Read more than 1 time that Sony wouldn’t get anymore money from them yet here they are doing the opposite of what they said on the web. So I’m guessing that what they posted on the web about threatening to stop using Sony services were just empty threats. That’s why I always tone down anything I read on the web.

So yes in a perfect world the announcement followed by complaints followed by backing down should be the way it works. I just don’t think Blizzard would have really suffered from it if they would have decided to carry on even though the opposition was quite visible on the web.
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I said I wouldn’t but any games from EA and i haven’t since i said that, not that it helped…EA still hates me and wont do what they are supposed to do but as much as i would like EA to give in and give me what i paid for i think that Giving to much power to consumers is also a bad idea. If i own a business and i want to change something, ill go out of business before i give in to thousands of consumers who would complain no matter what i gave them. so just as company’s need to listen i also think there’s a line there that should be drawn.
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I could provide other examples, but I don’t want to trigger your spam filter. And even if I had 100, I couldn’t show statistical significance. I do think it’s noteworthy they exist at all though.

Blizzard has a pretty long history of ignoring internet whining. My unprovable hunch is that people did quit in this incident in large enough numbers to be noticed.* Note that Blizzard will allow you to play until any already paid-for time on your subscription has been used, so even if people did quit they could still play for up to another month or more- and with the reversal, many or most of those people will re-subscribe.

Other than that I get now what you’re saying**– there’s a wonderful picture somewhere of the Steam userlist for the Boycott MW2 group (I think that’s the one) taken a few days after the game released– and they’re all playing MW2.

*- An alternate hypothesis I’ve seen, that Blizzard/Activision legal found some liability and said stop, I find unlikely- surely at a company that size a policy decision like this would have already been vetted (?)

**- Mind, I don’t really agree with your conclusion. From my standpoint, and in my experience, it’s a good thing that all speech not actively harmful (eg ‘Fire!’ in a theater) falls under freedom of speech protections (I’m in the US… your mileage may vary). Even if it’s people saying things they don’t intend to follow through with. Surely every statement made doesn’t need to be viewed through the lens of contract law! (I also think the rights/responsibilities and freedom of CHOICE things are misapplied. But I’m getting extremely wordy, so I’ll choose to hit ‘submit comment now.)
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well u cant yell fire in a theater, and that doesn’t break the freedom of speech since it says it some where when u buy the tickets, also now there something called noise pollution and strangely they can get angry people on that.
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I’m not so sure. Even if most of the people posting were really blowing smoke, it’s healthy for there to be a middle ground between pleasing everybody and watching your business melt in the hellfire of public opinion.

After all, it’s not that everyone who was against RealID wanted Blizzard to fall apart or WoW to cease existence, they just wanted it to work in a manner that wouldn’t push them away. As they themselves were their own advocates, did it not then fall on them to express as effectively as possible their disapproval?

You can’t run your company without customers, and you can’t be a loyal customer without a company you can believe in. It’s fundamentally a relationship, and like any relationship it’s a sign of exceptionally poor health when every problem can only be handled by a dichotomous choice between grin and bear and leave forever.
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